Exiled Muslim writer hits "house arrest" in India

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - An exiled Bangladeshi Muslim woman
writer whose presence in India sparked riots said on Thursday
that New Delhi was forcing her to live under virtual house
arrest, and appealed for more freedom.

Award-winning writer Taslima Nasreen, who criticizes the
use of religion as an oppressive force, has lived in the east
India city of Kolkata since 2003.

She was rushed from her home and moved from city to city
last month when radical Islamist protests against her led to
riots, and the army had to be called in.

Nasreen fled Bangladesh for the first time in 1994 when a
court there said she had "deliberately and maliciously" hurt
Muslims' religious feelings with her Bengali-language novel
"Lajja," or "Shame," about riots between Muslims and Hindus.

Several of her books have been banned in India and
Bangladesh. The European Parliament awarded her the Sakharov
Prize for freedom of thought in 1994.

Nasreen now lives in a secret security facility in New
Delhi, which she has equated with "solitary confinement."

Her fate has become a hot political issue for New Delhi as
the Hindu nationalist opposition has accused the government of
pandering to Muslim minorities by trying to get her out of the
country.

"I don't think that in the name of security I should be put
in solitary confinement," Nasreen told the New Delhi Television
news channel. "I asked them how long I have to remain in house
arrest, they said they don't know."

The government has refused to comment on Nasreen's claims.
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